Expansion, changes at hand for garbage

City garbage service will roll into new areas of Augusta beginning Monday, and everybody living in them has to get on board.

One of the new areas to be served by contract hauler Augusta Disposal runs from Jimmy Dyess Parkway to the Columbia County line. The other is in Goshen and includes Brown Road south to Clark Road.

Residents in those areas and those already served by Augusta Disposal have been delivered new carts and notified by brochure and letter about collection days and times, holiday schedules and the dos and don'ts of the mandatory service.

New customers received a letter from Solid Waste Director Mark Johnson telling them to notify their current haulers that they will no longer be using their service.

Instead, they will use the city's at a cost of $276 a year, which Mr. Johnson insists is a bargain for twice-weekly garbage pickup and once-weekly yard-waste and bulk-waste pickup and recycling.

Collection days are Mondays and Thursdays for customers served by Augusta Disposal. Garbage and yard waste will be picked up on Mondays. Garbage, recycling and bulk waste will be picked up on Thursdays.

The schedule changes are for Augusta Disposal only, which serves about 15,000, or one-third of the city's residential customers, Mr. Johnson said.

"We're doing this in bite-size chunks," he said. "After we get through with Augusta Disposal, then we're going to take a week or so off to figure out what our strengths and weaknesses were; then we'll move on to haulers Inland Services and then on to Advanced Disposal."

Also beginning Monday and affecting every customer countywide is a ban on the use of plastic bags for yard waste.

"You can use your 32-gallon can, or you can use your kraft yard-waste bag, but not plastic bags" Mr. Johnson said.

The kraft bags may be purchased at several area stores, including Lowe's, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Sears and Kroger, Mr. Johnson said.

Sears in Augusta, for example, is selling a pack of five bags for $2.49.

Haulers will still pick up larger yard waste stacked in piles no larger than 5 feet by 10 feet and no taller than 5 feet. The same dimension restrictions apply to bulk waste, which must not contain construction debris.

- Must be put in open-top cans or brown paper kraft bags. Yard waste in plastic bags will not be accepted. Prunings, limbs and bigger items may be placed in bundles or neat piles and cannot exceed 5 feet by 5 feet by 10 feet.

- Includes plant material, leaves, grass clippings, branches, brush, sod and other biodegradable matter common to yard work